A couple of recent posts have pissed off denizens of some other forums. That in and of itself is not a problem. What IS a problem is intentionally provoking members of other forums, specifically Group Thinkers. It's also extremely uncool to then come down on people for their predictably angry responses.

Several people on CLT and GT have said that they think we're mean over here. I disagree with that vehemently. I'm not terribly concerned with our reputation, and I suppose it's natural to have a bit of a rivalry, or whatever, with our closest neighbors. But there have been a couple of posts in the past few weeks that seemed specifically designed to provoke readers at GT. (You know the ones I mean: Fat and Stupid from this weekend and Women Should Take More Responsibility for their Rapes from a couple of weeks ago.)

We can do that, we can post those posts, but we should expect people to see it as hostile and to respond in kind.

Let's be clear: taking pot shots at commenters on GT or Jez is pretty low. "Oh look, they're girls with emotions and frustrations and trying to navigate their ways in the world." And I say this as someone who has a limited interest and/or use in those sites. But I do think it's awfully insidious to go after the outspoken girl brigade. (Whither the shots across the bow at Oppositelock or Observation Deck?)

Over at CLT, Nilla Wafer called us out for not calling out those posts, and then for getting mad when GTers came over here and got mad (as people tend to do when you insult their intelligence and dignity). I disagree with much of her reading of this community, but in that she was right.

That's my piece on the subject. I'd love to hear what other people think, as well.

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ETA: I just want to make it abundantly clear that we are talking about TWO posts, which is a tiny fraction of what is posted here, and in no way representative of the community — or even of the people who are wrote them, both of whom I, personally, like very much.